Wordless Wednesday: Heirloom Expo 2016
It's beautiful up here at the Heirloom Expo 2016. There is so much to see, so I'll just leave it to the photos to explain. And we have to finish with the squash tower, a mainstay of the Heirloom Expo:
Harvesting Silver Edge Pumpkin Seeds
I fell in love with Silver Edge pumpkin seeds the moment I laid eyes on them. This Mexico native squash wins every beauty contest when it comes to seeds. They're enormous, they're exotic and they have a shiny SILVER EDGE! What could be better? Well...this: they taste delicious. Silver Edge pumpkins are not grown for the flesh, which is allegedly unpalatable, they are grown for the seeds. Traditionally used in pipian sauce, a green mole-type sauce without the chocolate, Silver…
Harvesting Glass Gem Popping Corn
The moment of truth has arrived. We just harvested the Glass Gem Popping Corn we grew this summer. Between the rats and corn worms, we lost at least half the harvest, but what was left was substantial enough to be proud of. Glass Gem is an open pollinated seed "bred from a number of Native varieties by Carl 'White Eagle' Barnes, the famous Cherokee corn collector to whom we owe our gratitude for his life's work of collecting, preserving and…
Asian Citrus Psyllid in My Backyard
It's here, in Mar Vista, in our backyard. The Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) has been in found in Los Angeles, but just last week we discovered it on a weak lime tree in the back corner of Gardenerd HQ. Here's what it looks like in real life. At first we didn't see the pest, just evidence that it arrived. Squiggly, white threads were sprinkled over the leaf surfaces and dangled off flower buds. It's like a horror film where the…
Review: Natural Beekeeping Conference 2016
I had the good fortune of being a speaker at the first ever Natural Beekeeping Conference that took place this weekend in Pasadena, CA. Honeylove.org organized the event. They gathered top experts in treatment-free beekeeping from around the continent, and welcomed guests from all over the world. Yours truly taught Gardening for Beekeepers. Most of my beekeeping colleagues have attended regular beekeeping conferences, only to find themselves flabbergasted by the amount of attention given to chemicals: miticides, fungicides, artificial food…
Ask Gardenerd: Saving Broccolini Seeds
This terrific question came in from an inquiring mind this week: "Last spring I had a very tasty crop of Broccolini. I was impressed enough to save seeds at the end of the season. I've since learned that Broccolini is a cross between Italian Broccoli and Chinese Broccoli (a form of Kale). Was my seed saving a waste of time? If I try and plant these seeds, will they revert to one of the two parent plants? - Ed Callahan"…